Monday, May 30, 2005

While hiking in Seorak Park last year I saw two snakes. I chased them off the trail with a stick before any other hikers came by as I expected other would kill the snakes. I wrote about my hike here. Anyway, in that post, I wondered if the snakes were poisonous.

Well, I don't have to wonder any more. No, I'm not dying, nor have I been bitten. 'Always in Transit' found a useful thread on Dave's eslcafe that discusses the subject. A gentleman (or gentlewoman) named 'Rapier' is intent on cataloging the wildlife of Korea and has posted photos and descriptions of Korean mammals, amphibians and reptiles.

I think the snake I saw was poisonous. It looks like the first one on the list.

This kind of wildlife census is important and I think it has not been properly done here, even in Korean. Koreans don't seem aware of much of their penninsula's natural history.

I have to admit noticing the same problems with snakes in my small town in Canada as I see here. Many of my friends have claimed to see cottonmouth snakes and copperhead snakes in Muskoka (a district in Ontario, Canada). It sure was hard to convince them that no such snake has even been caught in Ontario and they would have to go to Florida or possibly the Carolinas before finding those snakes.

My wife works for the Korean Coast Guard but I have no inside information to leak. This post is mostly based on activities on the West Coast, while we live on the East Coast.

Three public problems have occured this spring. First, a Sokcho fisherman, apparently drunk, was able to defect, by sea, to North Korea. The Coast Guard fired a few warning shots but was unable to stop him.

Second, a ferry transporting tourists from an island to Incheon (or anyway, a port on the Northern West coast) sank and the Coast Guard was slow in rescueing the victims.

Thirdly, in moving to stop illegal fishing, several coast guard personnel were beaten up by the Chinese fishermen they were trying to arrest. The boats escaped but may have returned and these boats and fishermen were arrested.

impounded ships and charged chinese fishermen

This article describes the two incidences, one that occured on the 24th and the other on the 28th.

May 28, 2005 ㅡ Korean maritime police took intocustody yesterday 35 Chinese fishermen foundoperating trawlers in Korean waters in the YellowSea. It may have been at least some of the fishermen'ssecond violation in a week.

The Incheon branch of the Korea Coast Guard said it suspected the fishermen were the same ones who charged at Korean marine police officers with iron pipes earlier in the week when the police triedto arrest them.

The fishermen from three fishing boats are undergoing questioning at Incheon Port, the Korea Coast Guard said. In confiscating the fishermen's three boats, the marine police said they found and seized about 30 weapons, including iron pipes and hatchets.

The investigators will transfer the case toprosecutors after they determine if any of themen were those involved in the earlier fracas.

On Tuesday at around 1:30 a.m. three marine policeofficers were injured when they climbed aboard twoChinese fishing boats caught fishing 48 kilometers(27 miles) off the west coast.

Twelve marine officers approached the vessels, butafter seizing one boat, they were set upon by 18fishermen in the other, who charged at them with iron pipes.

I normally have great respect for naval services and I want to again. Here's hoping that they can work in the professional way that the sea requires. And, if the fishermen that attacked the officers are indeed in custody, I hope they have a long sentence coming.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Even in Seoul, it's hard to find cheddar even in supermarkets. By the way, I'll never voluntarilary eat process sliced cheddar. Anyway, no cheddar, but emmental everywhere! Who eats this stuff?

I think it's Swiss (judging only from the holes in the cheese -in the picture, anyway) and Switzerland seems an interesting place. I've met the ambassador and enjoyed hearing about how unique Switzerland is. Still, how many Swiss are there in Korea? Does the Big Hominid, an acknowledged Swissophile, buy that much cheese?

I have become accustomed to slicing my cheddar very thinly, using it as sparingly as I could, until I again made a trip to Seoul for more. (I avoided until now, when I have finished the post and am mostly proofreading to point out my self-control in not making a 'who cut the cheese?' type of comment.)

My life is so hard! Pity me.

I hadn't realized how cheese-crazed I had become until my mother visited and I saw her carving huge blocks of cheddar to nibble on. It took great restraint to not yell at her to conserve, for God's sake!

Saturday, May 21, 2005

My university's second annual quiz contest was a success. There were over 200 contestants in the Kwandong University student game and another 200 in the Gangwondo high school game. I think all involved had fun but maybe these students might have prefered a different name. They all made a mistake in one of the first twenty questions and had a chance to get back into the competition.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

I have lived near, and worked in, Gangneung for more than two years. Before today, I had seen really very little; my university, E-mart (they have real cheese, not like Sokcho's E-mart) and the road from the highway to the university.

I didn't expect to see much of it today, neither. I left home early to travel to my bike (in Gangneung) to ride south for a few hours. I packed well for the trip, everything except for the key to my bike lock.

Since I was already in Gangneung and my university's Tourism students were running a tour bus as a project, I decided to take it.

The bus first stopped at O-juk-heon. It's a traditional house and shrine to Eolgog-yi-yi. You can see O-juk-heon on the 5,000 won bill. The museum included this display...

Choseon era Koreans loved their yo-yos!

Below is the picture on the 5,000 won bill.O-juk-heon and the picture on the 5,000 won bill.

The second stop was a 99-gan traditional house; the largest a house could be that was owned by non-royalty.

The third site was Kyoung-po Beach where I ran into two coworkers. One of them, Tom, and I took our first swim of the year.First swim of the year for Tom and Brian

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

After messing up a few doctored photos, I promised not to try again until I improved a lot more. However, after I read Rory's challenge and followed a link to someone named Peemil, I learned how to download some handier photo software. I have at least learned how to cut out a silhouette freehand; something I couldn't do with my previous software.

Rory found someone climbing into his apartment from his utility door and suggested bloggers watch their apartment's utility doors for visitors. I found one who looks really familiar!

Today, I had the day off and so began what I hope to be several days of cycling and exploring. My goal this week is to get to the Kyoungsangbuk border. I also hope to off a sort of online travel guide at some point, open up a dedicated blogspot page for cycling information.

Today's trip, however, will offer little for intrepid cyclists. The weather threatened rain all day, and in fact rain was forecast for the afternoon. It didn't arrive until evening but the day was at best cloudy and frequently cool.

Most of the ride, I didn't dally for photos, but just got the distance in. Which is too bad, because Gangneung has a few interesting sights that I rode on by.

Anyway, here are a few photos from today plus a handful from previous trips to points along the way. You will notice that my clothing changes, the season changes and even my bike changes from shot to shot.

I know some good alternate routes for the route from Sokcho to Hajodae and may show them the next time I post a map. Most of my trip today was on Highway 7 and most of my pictures from today are of my misadventures resulting from leaving highway 7. There are a few good places to ride through villages to get off the highway but none are very long. That's too bad because the highway lacks a paved shoulder in quite a few places. I felt safe but only because the road was not particularly busy.

Heading south on highway 7 from Sokcho, I stayed on the highway until I reached Naksansa. From the temple, I was able to hug the coastline for about 10 km.

About 2 km from the temple, I crossed the Namdaechun (a river) and a few km after that, I passed Osanri Prehistoric site. Don't bother hunting for it. There is an english sign but it just says that items were found here and taken away. There's nothing to see.

nothing to see here

Beyond that is a sign for a beach. It's a great beach but the road is a dead end.deadend

If you are feeling real tough and have something to prove, try playing on the meanest volleyball court. Look at those stones!badass Volleyball court

Eventually, the backroad reaches the highway. In the interests of helping my readers, I tried to stay on the back roads. Here, I cross some drying nets; they're everywhere along the coast. I saw tracks deforming the nets so I felt secure walkng over them.walking over nets

Here is the first place I had to walk. The trail was passable by mountain bike but not by road bike.walking through soft sand

Hajodae is a pleasant scenic site, one of the gwandong (8 special sites), my university is named for.Hajodae

From Hajodae, I stayed on the highway until Dongsan, where I was able to ride through the village for two or more km to Hyu-hyu-am. The villages were nice, but the road is not suitable for speed; expect a sightseeing trip not a race.

Hyu-hyu-am is a hermitage, or small temple based on strangely shaped rocks on the coast. It's a pretty and quite famous site here.Hyu-hyu-am

Hyu-hyu-am

I then rode on the highway to the interchange with toll highway 50. I followed a new, multi-lane road to the beach and found about 200m of great road. Then...walking 2

I walked my bike again and reached a paving stone road that went past the Gangwon office of the Sea Explorers of Korea, a Korean version of Sea Scouts. In the early summer, they have a festival weekend where you can play on their toys and boatsSea explorers of Korea getting help from the old master (me).

The paving stone road continued to Jumunjin and this...walking 3

After Jumunjin, I stayed on the highway. I rode through Jumunjin and lost two screws on my bikerack. A kindly welder found some screws for me and I was again off.

There were some good sites between Jumunjin and Gangneung but the day was getting colder and darker. The trip from Sokcho to Kwandong University in Gangneung took three and a half hours and was 70km long.

The government will spend around 8.8 billionwon ($8.8 million) to restore Naksan-sa Temple,which was burnt down by last month’s forestfires in Kangwon Province.

Culture and Tourism Minister Chung Dong-cheayesterday reported at the weekly Cabinet meetingthat the collapsed temple buildings will be rebuiltin two or three years.

The ministry allotted 8.7 billion won for thereconstruction works and 0.1 billion won for theremolding of the temple’s bronze bell, which wasmelted during the blaze. ``The restoration of thebell will take around six months,’’ the ministry’sassistant minister Lee Bo-kyong told reporters.

All this is great news for the temple. I am not so thrilled by the suggested policies for fire prevention.

``We plan to allow the temples to deforest areaswithin 20 or 30 meters from their compounds toprevent a forest fire from spreading tobuildings,’’ Lee said.

The ministry also plans to plant trees that aremore fireproof and install or widen roads leadingto the temples to ease access by fire engines.

The wind on April 5 was wild and powerful. The power driving it is well-understood but not by me and I may confuse the details a little.

Basically, there is a wall of mountains just inland of the coast. Seorak is the most famous of these. Wind coming from the west falls down the east side and spreads out a little. At the base of the mountains, the air compacts again and the wind's strength is multiplied. This is, I think, the mechanism of 'hydraulic jump'.

This powerful wind, which I described here, made my apartment sing and wail and pushed me around as I cycled. I reported (same posting) that the fire had jumped great distances that day. A margin of 20-30m may help in the future, but would not have helped Naksan much.

I am all for planting trees that are more fireproof but not interested in deforesting the margins of the temple buildings. Call me a heretic, but I enjoy the forests as much as the temples when I visit them.

Also, I fear that improved roads would simply lead to bigger parking lots closer to the temples and Koreans have trouble driving without leaning on their horns. Call me a heretic but I enjoy the quiet as much as the temples when I visit them.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

NOTE: I found this post in my 'drafts' pile, where it had rested for a few years. I don't know why I didn't post it then.

Today, I had the day off and so began what I hope to be several days of cycling and exploring. My goal this week is to get to the Kyoungsangbuk border. I also hope to off a sort of online travel guide at some point, open up a dedicated blogspot page for cycling information.

Today's trip, however, will offer little for intrepid cyclists. The weather threatened rain all day, and in fact rain was forecast for the afternoon. It didn't arrive until evening but the day was at best cloudy and frequently cool.

Most of the ride, I didn't dally for photos, but just got the distance in. Which is too bad, because Gangneung has a few interesting sights that I rode on by.

Anyway, here are a few photos from today plus a handful from previous trips to points along the way. You will notice that my clothing changes, the season changes and even my bike changes from shot to shot.

I know some good alternate routes for the route from Sokcho to Hajodae and may show them the next time I post a map. Most of my trip today was on Highway 7 and most of my pictures from today are of my misadventures resulting from leaving highway 7. There are a few good places to ride through villages to get off the highway but none are very long. That's too bad because the highway lacks a paved shoulder in quite a few places. I felt safe but only because the road was not particularly busy.

Heading south on highway 7 from Sokcho, I stayed on the highway until I reached Naksansa. From the temple, I was able to hug the coastline for about 10 km.

About 2 km from the temple, I crossed the Namdaechun (a river) and a few km after that, I passed Osanri Prehistoric site. Don't bother hunting for it. There is an english sign but it just says that items were found here and taken away. There's nothing to see.

Osanri prehistoric site, nothing to see here.

Beyond that is a sign for a beach. It's a great beach but the road is a dead end.

deadend

If you are feeling real tough and have something to prove, try playing on the meanest volleyball court. Look at those stones!bad-ass volleyball court

The road runs below the Yangyang airport. Here is a shot from the airport.Airport view

Eventually, the backroad reaches the highway. In the interests of helping my readers, I tried to stay on the back roads. Here, I cross some drying nets; they're everywhere along the coast. I saw tracks deforming the nets so I felt secure walkng over them.backroad, beginning of trouble

Here is the first place I had to walk. The trail was passable by mountain bike but not by road bike.walking 1

Hajodae is a pleasant scenic site, one of the gwandong (8 special sites), my university is named for.Hajodae lighthouse

From Hajodae, I stayed on the highway until Dongsan, where I was able to ride through the village for two or more km to Hyu-hyu-am. The villages were nice, but the road is not suitable for speed; expect a sightseeing trip not a race.

Hyu-hyu-am is a hermitage, or small temple based on strangely shaped rocks on the coast. It's a pretty and quite famous site here.Hyu-hyu am

hyu-hyu am

I then rode on the highway to the interchange with toll highway 50. I followed a new, multi-lane road to the beach and found about 200m of great road. Then...Walking 2

I walked my bike again and reached a paving stone road that went past the Gangwon office of the Sea Explorers of Korea, a Korean version of Sea Scouts. In the early summer, they have a festival weekend where you can play on their toys and boats.Sea explorers of Korea

The paving stone road continued to Jumunjin and this...walking 3

After Jumunjin, I stayed on the highway. I rode through Jumunjin and lost two screws on my bikerack. A kindly welder found some screws for me and I was again off.

There were some good sites between Jumunjin and Gangneung but the day was getting colder and darker. I will take further pictures on the return trip later this week. The trip from Sokcho to Kwandong University in Gangneung took three and a half hours and was 70km long.